Gabon pres­i­dent ap­points new prime min­is­ter af­ter coup

Gabon Pres­i­dent Ali Bongo ap­pointed a new prime min­is­ter days af­ter sur­viv­ing a coup at­tempt that came while he was abroad re­ceiv­ing treat­ment for a stroke. Bongo, who has been out of the coun­try since Oc­to­ber, ap­pointed Julien Nkoghe Bekale as the coun­try’s new Prime Min­is­ter by pres­i­den­tial de­cree, Sec­re­tary-Gen­eral in the Pres­i­dency Jean Yves Teale said in a live broad­cast on state tele­vi­sion in the early hours of yes­ter­day morn­ing. Bekale, a for­mer labour min­is­ter, re­places Em­manuel Is­soze-Ngondet, who was ap­pointed by a sim­i­lar de­cree in the ab­sence of Bongo.